Ilia State University

Ilia State University (ILIA UNI), located in Tbilisi, Georgia, is one of the flagship public research universities in Georgia that strives for academic excellence and integrity in teaching and research. ILIA UNI’s recognition at home and abroad, amongst many of its partners worldwide is due to ILIA UNI’s unique institutional capacity that is reflected primarily, in the quality of academic staff recruited successfully throughout Georgia and beyond and secondly, in the strong focus on and commitment to research and in its distinctive ability to initiate an open, unbiased public policy discussion. Over a short period of time, ILIA UNI has emerged as one of the leading reformers in Georgian higher education system and has managed to evolve into one of the most selective universities and prestigious study destinations in the country.

ILIA UNI was established in 2006 as a merger of six different institutions, each having a long history and a diverse institutional profile. ILIA UNI has four Schools – Arts and Sciences, Business, Law, and Engineering – each offers distinctive training in their respective direction at three levels. ILIA UNI has about 10,000 students at all levels. Ilia State University unites 25 Research Institutes, Centers and Laboratories dispersed across the country. The diverse profile of these research institutions and laboratories create a unique opportunity for research and practice on the topics relevant to Georgia’s role and contribution to the international community. ILIA UNI community is dedicated to provide high-quality education and facilitate rigorous research through innovative initiatives and policies. ILIA UNI believes that this approach will contribute to the creation of a global knowledge-based society capable of developing sustainable solutions for the challenges of the 21st century.

Prof. Dr. Marika Kapanadze her research interests are teacher professional development, science curriculum development and investigation of students’ interest in science. She is one of the authors of National Curricula in Physics and Science in Georgia. She is engaged in development, implementation and evaluation of curricula and new curricular materials. Prof. Kapanadze was the coordinator of the TEMPUS project SALiS, which was successfully implemented at Ilia State University. She is a head of the research center and the teacher professional development programs in science education at the university; she is actively involved in pre- and in-service teacher-training courses. Prof. Kapanadze develops the courses about inquiry based learning and active learning methods in science. She is a co-author of methodological books in education and in science education.

Nino Zhvania, MAHead of Quality Assurance Office at Ilia State University. She is in charge of academic program review and appraisal. Pertaining to this line of professional responsibility, Nino Zhvania is in charge of alignment academic programs with internal and external standards of teaching and learning. On other area of Ms Nino Zhvania’s professional inquiry is program appraisal delivered annually through the administration of online survey tools and including student achievement data analysis. As the head of the QA office, Ms Nino Zhvania is keen on participating in dialogue with international partners on the issues of quality assurance in higher education.

Eka Kvinikadze has been working as the LeadingSpecialist at the Quality Assurance Office since 2008. She is engaged in coordinating internal and external quality assurance processes and procedures at ILIAUNI. Her key responsibilities include participation in approval, monitoring and systematic review of academic programs, ensuring compliance of University educational programs with the accreditation standards, rules and regulations, cooperation with faculty members in delivering authorization and accreditation self-evaluation reports. She is involved in developing accountability procedures for ILIAUNI faculty and academic departments as well as developing formal mechanisms for QA processes for teaching and research at ILIAUNI.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. These publications reflect the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Project no 543839-TEMPUS-1-2013-1-SE-TEMPUS-SMHES